Welcome to the Hog Blog, a blog chronicling minor-league baseball in the Lehigh Valley. Tom Housenick, The Morning Call's IronPigs beat writer, has been at The Morning Call since 2008. In a previous lifetime, he was at Lackawanna County Stadium in Moosic talking with future Phillies Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard, among many others.
He’ll now be spending his summers in search of who the Phillies are hoping to be the next Chase Utley and Cole Hamels plus any outfielder who catch and hit. What he really hopes to find are the next Mariano Rivera, Todd Helton and Jim Thome --- great human beings who happened to be great at this sport.
He spent the last five years covering Colonial League football, college basketball and high school track & field.

Pete Laforest is but a footnote in IronPigs history -- since he was on the Opening Day roster last year he'll always be an original 'Pig, but his tenure in Lehigh Valley lasted just five games and 15 at-bats (with a lone hit) before being released.

To the best of my knowledge the 31-year-old Laforest, who hit 29 homers in 86 games for Portland in 2007, didn't play anywhere last season after the Phillies cut him loose. But he reappeared earlier this week on the transaction wire when he signed a minor league deal with the Florida Marlins.

Laforest was claimed on waivers from San Diego late in the 2007 season as end-of-the-season catching insurance but after failing to unseat Chris Coste as Carlos Ruiz's back-up last spring was assigned to the IronPigs, where he wasn't happy to sit behind Jason Jaramillo. Hence, his quick departure (along with the IronPigs' dismal 2-13 record at the time).

Whether he has a shot at claiming a big-league job with the Marlins (he's played 68 games in the majors, hitting .196 in 148 at-bats) remains to be seen. But if he winds up back in Triple-A it'll be back in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League at New Orleans...

Speaking of the PCL and New Orleans, that's where another IronPigs flop from the start of last season, Valentino Pascuzzi, wound up after his release in late April when the Mets signed him. Pascuzzi, who led the PCL and all of the minors with 34 homers in 2007, resurrected his season with the Zephyrs, belting 27 homers and batting .290 in 114 games.

Pascuzzi probably had little interest in following the Mets back to the International League this season (New York shifted its affiliation to Buffalo). Instead, he returned to Albuquerque, where he hit all those homers and hit .290 in 2007, signing with the Dodgers.

And speaking of Albuquerque, Pascuzzi will be reunited there with Brian Mazone, who signed in the offseason with the Dodgers after three years with the Phillies organziation, including last year with the IronPigs.

Also, the two may be teammates this spring for Team Italy iin the World Baseball Classic. They were both on the provisional Italian roster, which must be finalized by Friday. Laforest may also be involved in the WBC -- he is on the Canadian provisional roster.